ARMY CAREER & ALUMNI PROGRAM

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ACAP Process

ACAP Process

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The ACAP Process

Your ACAP Center will assist you and your Soldiers in getting an early start through a formal notification process. Soldiers must register for services and arrange for their first service. For their first service, Soldiers will receive preseparation counseling, learn more about ACAP and schedule additional services. Soldiers document the counseling by completing a DD Form 2648 or 2648-1, the Preseparation Counseling Checklist, and this document determines if the Soldier and your unit have met the Army's timeliness standard.

Many Soldiers will sign up to receive employment assistance training, either by attending a workshop or viewing workshop training online. The workshop provides the skills and knowledge Soldiers need to attain their transition goals. Once they’ve completed a workshop, Soldiers will need additional help and services to select a career objective, write a resume, find a job opportunity, apply for a job and prepare for an interview. These additional services can be scheduled and completed over a number of weeks and months and around mission requirements using a variety of modalities. In addition to this regular menu of additional services, many ACAP Centers schedule special events. Throughout the ACAP Process, the TSM and ACAP Center staff remain accessible to commanders and other Army Leaders. You can always verify a Soldier’s appointments or confirm that the Soldier reported for a scheduled appointment. The entire ACAP Team is committed to helping you support your Soldiers while also ensuring that your critical mission continues without interruption.

Getting Started Early

Each commander, sergeant major and first sergeant is responsible for ensuring that Soldiers initiate ACAP services early on in the transition process. Recognizing that the effectiveness of services is directly linked to the time Soldiers spend preparing for their transition from active duty, Congress directed that Soldiers can access transition and job assistance services up to two years (for retirees) or one year (for non-retiring transitioners) prior to departure from active duty. From a leader’s point of view, early is better than late. Soldiers who begin their ACAP services early in their transition are better able to complete ACAP activities around unit duty requirements. More importantly, if the Army is to realize the benefits of reduced unemployment compensation costs, enhanced active duty retention, enhanced enlistment in the National Guard and Reserve and enhanced image of the Army as a great place to start, Soldiers must have time to receive substantive transition and employment assistance services. ACAP Centers maintain statistics on unit compliance with Army, DoD and congressional policies regarding timely involvement in transition and job assistance services. Your chain of command will typically have access to this data and your unit’s compliance rate will be a matter of record.

Notification

The ACAP process works best when initiated early. Allowing Soldiers to start early provides you and the Soldier the flexibility needed to prevent a conflict between mission requirements and ACAP services. It also ensures compliance with timeliness standards and promotes the program’s effectiveness. As they prepare for transition, Soldiers need an average of 40 hours, spread over a six-month period of time, to take advantage of ACAP services. The goodness of the program cannot be realized during clearing. As we all know, loss rosters may be based on erroneous data. Some of the Soldiers listed may have reenlisted or extended. The chain of command should ensure that transitioning Soldiers receive notification correspondence and take timely action to arrange for their first service. Remember, from a leader’s point of view, early is better than late. In addition to direct notification, Soldiers may be informed of the need to access ACAP services through pre-retirement briefings, ETS briefings and on-post marketing initiatives.

Registering for Services

Notified Soldiers can register for their first ACAP service online and in person or pre-register by phone. Once registered, they can schedule services and print an appointment slip. Soldiers can choose to receive services in the ACAP Center or online. Either way, they will be advised what they need to do next. You are always welcome to contact the ACAP Center to confirm a Soldier’s first appointment or to confirm that the Soldier actually reported to the ACAP Center as scheduled or completed preseparation counseling online.

First Visit

The first step in the ACAP process is a two-hour preseparation counseling session, most often presented as an automated presentation delivered by the ACAP On-Line website or at the ACAP Center. The contents of the counseling are defined by DoD and Army guidance and provide Soldiers valuable information on transition benefits and programs designed to assist their smooth transition from active duty. Soldiers complete a DoD Form 2648 or 2648-1 to acknowledge receipt of this counseling and indicate their desire for additional information and services. The date of this briefing is recorded in the automated ACAP system and, along with the Soldiers ETS date, is the basis for all statistical reports on unit compliance with Army, DoD and congressional directives. At the conclusion of the briefing, Soldiers will be provided information on other service providers and given the opportunity to schedule follow-on ACAP services. If Soldiers do schedule a follow-on activity, they can print an appointment slip. As always, unit commanders and leaders can always verify an appointment by calling the ACAP Center.

Timeliness Standards

Congress mandated that all transitioning Soldiers receive a preseparation briefing no later than 90 days prior to separation from active duty. ACAP Centers maintain compliance statistics for all units, and the TSM may provide commanders at all levels with information on how well their unit and their subordinate units are doing. The current Army standard for timeliness is 85%. The TSM can provide the names of Soldiers who did not receive a timely preseparation briefing. While Congress requires all transitioning Soldiers to receive the preseparation briefing no later than 90 days before separation, they have also recognized the value of an early start. Consequently, retiring Soldiers can start receiving services as early as two years before retirement and non-retiring Soldiers can start receiving services as early as one year before separation.

Workshops

The next step in the ACAP process is attendance at a workshop. Department of Labor Transition Assistance Program (DoL TAP) Employment Workshops are conducted by Department of Labor sponsored TAP facilitators. The workshops generally last from two to three days and provide attendees the knowledge, information and skills they need to achieve their post-transition occupational or educational goals. A schedule of your installation’s workshops can be found on ACAP On-Line. Often, Veterans Administration representatives and other service providers also participate. Workshop supports retention by helping Soldiers compare their current salary, benefits and opportunities with those they might be able to attain in the Private Sector. Additionally, the workshop helps Soldiers explore how enlistment in the National Guard or Reserves can play an important role in attaining financial stability and career development after they leave active duty.

Service members who are separating or retiring for medical reasons can receive information about the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Vocational Rehabilitation Program and the application process. The Disabled Transition Assistance Program (DTAP) provides a half-day seminar, usually presented by the Department of Veterans Affairs in conjunction with the Department of Defense, in conjunction with the three-day Transition Assistance Program.Each Soldier can print an appointment slip containing information on the date and duration of the workshop. You can always confirm a Soldier’s workshop reservation and attendance by contacting the ACAP Center.

Additional Services

No one ever found a job just by attending a class. The real work of preparing for transition success begins where the workshop ends. Soldiers, even those going to school after separation, will need to begin the process of setting a career objective. Objective setting requires a careful assessment of occupations, the job market and the Soldier’s own skills, aptitudes, experience, education and training. Once the Soldier has set an objective, the tough task of achieving that objective begins. Typically, job seekers must create a resume, network, identify job opportunities, apply for jobs, prepare for interviews and prepare to negotiate salary and benefits. These are difficult tasks and few Soldiers have ever performed them prior to their entry on active duty. ACAP staff members are qualified professionals who have the training and resources to help Soldiers perform these critical tasks. Counselors can be contacted through ACAP On-Line or counseling sessions can be scheduled for individual attention. Soldiers can also go to ACAP On-Line or schedule time in the ACAP Center to use the automated job assistance training program, JATA, as a means of supplementing workshop instruction as well as career exploration tools, resume writers and Internet job search resources. Generally, Soldiers can print an appointment slip and commanders and leaders can always contact the ACAP Center to verify an appointment or attendance at an appointment.

Special Events

Your ACAP Center may schedule special events to enrich ACAP services. Job fairs may be held to help transitioners meet and interview with hiring employers. Local employers may be invited into the ACAP Center to help Soldiers understand the local job market and better appreciate what employers are looking for in successful job applicants. The ACAP Center also might hold short classes for those who want to learn more about a specific job search topic such as resume writing or interviewing. A schedule of these special events can be found on ACAP On-Line.